Java Mobile Applications (J2ME)

Guitar Trainer was originally written for older mobile phones (including Blackberry), as a J2ME app that could be purchased directly from my MobileTutor.org website.

Before the advent of online marketplaces such as the App Store and Google Play, the MobileTutor.org store backend was entirely designed from scratch, with payment processing through PayPal, Amazon, Google Checkout and a number of other mobile payment processors.

Linux Development

UNIX systems have been an early love in my career as a software developer.As an early adopter of Linux, all the way to the foundation of modern systems from Apple and Google, UNIX technologies are an important part of my daily work.

Codehost, Inc.

I am currently the lead software engineer for Codehost, where I designed BrightQ, a user-friendly suite of software to distribute and setup printer drivers, based in part on Apple’s CUPS. Besides Linux, the software was also ported to Solaris, AIX, FreeBSD, and HP-UX, with past ports to SCO and IRIX.

It is currently the official UNIX solution for Canon MFPs in North America, and is also available for other major manufacturers including Ricoh, Sharp, and more.

I am also a seasoned Linux systems administrator, and was responsible for developing critical aspects of the Codehost licensing server.

Loki Software, Inc.

I worked on the Linux ports of several major video game titles while working at Loki. These included :

As a developer, I also helped build the then-nascent infrastructure for Linux gaming and worked on several related open-source projects that live on to this day:

Loki Setup, now ported to a variety of other Unix systems and used by Codehost’s BrightQ.

Makeself, initially a relatively simple shell script for creating self-extracting archives I built while at SciTech, it is now used as the basis of many popular installers and packages for UNIX systems.

Simple Directmedia Layer: SDL was the core library used when porting games to Linux, and I contributed several patches during my tenure at Loki - including a fun ASCII-art video driver!

SciTech Software, Inc.

One of my first experiences as a professional Linux developer was porting the (now defunct) SciTech Display Doctor suite of display drivers to Linux, back in 1998.

I also participated in the Linux port of SciTech’s MGL graphics library that was in use by major video game studios at the time, providing direct hardware access to video cards on PC.

Open Source Projects

Makeself, a popular Unix packaging tool used to create self-extracting archives and installers. Besides projects for my employers, it has been used by companies such as Google, nVIDIA, Oracle, and more.

Loki Setup, the original Loki Games installer, which I still use in conjunction with Makeself to build graphical installers for UNIX applications.

FBUtility, a library to help with interfacing with the popular Facebook iOS SDK and which is used by all apps from Catloaf Software.

… and a number of forks I have contributed to over the years, in a variety of platforms and languages.

AudioKit

AudioKit is a new open-source audio library, based on the venerable Csound that makes it easy for iOS developers to develop powerful audio applications in Objective-C and Swift.

Since April 2015, I have joined the AudioKit organization as a developer and have contributed many commits, including helping reorganizing AudioKit as a proper static library, lots of general fixes, improvements to audio plots, and more.

I look forward to further contributions to this project as its potential is great for anybody interested in writing audio applications for iOS - including myself!

Music

Music is a lifelong passion of mine.I learned to play keyboards as a kid, then later taught myself guitar and bass.

Listening

While I enjoy listening to a wide variety of different music styles, from classical to jazz fusion all the way to extreme death metal, I am particularly passionate about modern progressive rock in its various incarnations.

Some of my favorite artists in that genre include:

Spock’s Beard - one of the top acts in the genre today, I became a huge fan since the first time I saw them live.

Neal Morse was the founding member of Spock’s Beard, and left to pursue a solo career focused on Christian prog. An incredibly prolific artist and definitely one of the founding fathers of Modern Prog.

Dream Theater, the golden standard for metal-infused musicianship. John Petrucci is one of my favorite guitarists and I play his signature MusicMan guitar.

Opeth, a Swedish death-metal band that evolved into one of the most innovative prog bands today.

Pain of Salvation, yet another very eclectic progressive rock/metal band from Sweden. Daniel Gildenlow is a genius.

Transatlantic, a prog supergroup started by members from Spock’s Beard, Dream Theater, the Flower Kings and Marillion. A big gateway drug for me when I started exploring the genre.

Mike Keneally, an all-around musical genius and Frank Zappa alumnus who is a fixture of the LA prog scene. I try to catch as many of his live shows as I can.

Heliopolis, a brilliant new prog band on the LA scene (and cool friends to boot).

… and so much more.

On the more popular side, these bands are considered foundational to progressive rock and really helped shape my taste in music:

Queen, my first love with rock music. Bohemian Rhapsody is still my favorite song to this day.

Pink Floyd, the kings of psychedelic prog.

Rush, on the harder side of prog.

Yes, who with Genesis and King Crimson defined the early days of prog in the 70s.

Attending

I go to a lot of live shows, and living in Los Angeles we are very fortunate to have access to regular performances by some of the top musicians in the world. I can honestly say that I go out to see more live concerts than movies in theaters.

I can be spotted very often at gigs of my favorite artists around town, and I am a regular at the Baked Potato club in Studio City. So much great music happening all the time there, this place almost feels like a second home to me.

CalProg is a great organization putting up consistently awesome prog shows in Southern California. I am proud to have been a regular patron since its inception back in 2003.

Performing

My first musical instrument was the keyboard, for which I had lessons as a kid after showing an early interest. I even started writing my own music as a child.
These days, my favorite instrument is the electric guitar. I bought my first Ibanez RG at the Guitar Center store in Hollywood in 2001 and am completely self-taught.

I later expanded to other stringed instruments and can be occasionally spotted playing electric bass with the Peninsula Symphonic Winds in Palos Verdes, where my wife also performs on French horn.

I am otherwise not currently part of any band or studio project, though I have been known to occasionally write and record music in my home studio.

For a recent performance of my guitar playing, here is a video of myself performing the classic “Johnny B. Goode” at my wedding in July 2014.